From Testing to Assessment: English An International Language [Paperback]

From Testing to Assessment: English as an International Language provides a critical review of conventional and alternative approaches to the assessment of English literacy skills in various parts of the world. It presents empirical studies conducted in three major settings: in countries such as Japan and Brazil where English functions as the language of international commernce; in multilingual countries such as Nigeria and Zimbabwe where English is the national language of education and government; and in such countries as Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States where English is the dominant language.

The book opens with a discussion of language assessment in relation to debates about the nature of literacy; it concludes with a discussion of policy implications, which is grounded in literacy theory as well as in practical constraints such as available human and material resources.List of Contributors
Acknowledgements

Introduction
Part I: Theoretical Considerations
1. Models of literacy: the nature of reading tests, Clifford Hill and Kate Parry

Part II: Reading Tests
2. The Test of Enlgish as a Foreign Language: developing items for reading comprehension, Bonny Norton Peirce
3. An entrance test to Japanese universities: social and historical context, John E. Ingulsrud
4. The test and the text: readers in a Nigerian secondary school, Kate Parry
5. Adult education in the United States: adapting material for reading tests, Clifford Hill and Laurie Anderson

Part III: Literacy Assessment
6. English education in Zimbabwe: testing communicative competence, Kate Allen
7. English for academic purposes in Brazil: the use of sulCâ